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Ethical Action News

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Emergency Overnight Shelter

03 Jun 2016
Emily
Ethical Action

John Benfatti, Board member of Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture and founder of the Men’s Emergency Overnight Shelter

In 1994 the Riverdale Presbyterian Church formed a committee to address homelessness. Dr. Matthew Ies Spetter, then Leader of the Riverdale-Yonkers Society for Ethical Culture (RYSEC), announced the news at a Sunday platform. I joined that committee because to me its work was the ultimate expression of what it means to be an Ethical Culture humanist.

The committee set two goals: (1) to open an emergency overnight shelter in Riverdale, and, (2) to find homeless individuals on the street and offer them whatever help we could. There are not a lot of such people in our Riverdale neighborhood, so we decided to go as far as the last stop of the Number 1 Subway Line and look for people sleeping on the trains.

The RYSEC Emergency Overnight Shelter Program began operating on March 31, 2003. In the beginning, we partnered with Congregation Tehillah, a new synagogue that shares our Society’s space. Eventually another synagogue, the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, joined us. We then split up the responsibility for providing sleepover volunteers among the three organizations, making Hebrew Institute responsible for the first Monday of each month, Congregation Tehillah responsible for the second Monday and RYSEC responsible for the third, fourth and fifth Mondays.

The Hebrew Institute also set up a website (www.takethemameal.com) to coordinate donations of cooked meals for each Monday evening. In addition, we have student volunteers from Manhattan College each semester to help with setup, meal service and clean up after dinner. The students also sit with our guests during and after the meal providing some camaraderie for our guests. We also welcome our members and friends of the Society to volunteer at our shelter. One mother and her young children have been helping us set up our cots for the shelter almost every week since November 2015.

Our shelter is the only overnight homeless shelter in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. We serve only six men 1 night a week, on Mondays. The square footage of our space determines that we can only serve six persons. Our guests sleep in our Society’s meeting room, and they eat dinner and breakfast in the adjoining space next to our kitchen.

In October 2009, I began keeping a database of guests and volunteers. I filled in what I knew from March 2003. Based on my records, as at May 2, 2016 we have served 727 different individuals over the 13 years we have been operating.

DinnerCotsA table and cot in the shelter. One of the challenges with being homeless is that you are often in public view in facilities and have little privacy. With this in mind, shelter guests were not photographed here.

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The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist participation in National Inaugural Interfaith Service.On Thursday January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral will host a virtual presidential inaugural interfaith service to mark the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. While presented as an opportunity to bring the whole nation together, and while part of the “America United” inaugural activities, one large community will not be represented at all: atheists, agnostics, humanists, and the nonreligious. Millions of Americans today make meaning and express their personal and civic values without reference to a god or traditional religious beliefs. These Americans deserve a voice, and should be included in formal interfaith programming like the Inaugural Service. Read our full statement here: aeu.org/resource/aeu-calls-for-nontheist-participation-in-national-inaugural-interfaith-service/ ... See MoreSee Less

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Today, as the nation continues to recover from an attempted white supremacist insurrection at our capitol, we are reflecting upon this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. #MLK #MLKDay #MLK2021 #king #martinlutherkingjr #today #EthicalCulture #ethics #2021 ... See MoreSee Less

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AEU Statement Regarding the Events of January 6thYesterday, we watched in shock and horror as a violent mob attacked the US Capitol, forcing their way inside and occupying areas of the building for hours in an attempt to disrupt the certification of electoral votes submitted by the states. By the end of the day, 4 people were dead, 52 members of the seditious mob were arrested, and 14 police officers were injured. It took the assistance of many additional federal law enforcement personnel and the National Guard to remove the attackers from the Capitol and clear the way for the Joint Congress to resume its work.Fortunately, the Joint Congress was resolute and refused to let the interruption derail our democracy, working through the night to certify the electoral vote counts for all of the states. However, this episode was an attack on democracy itself, instigated by a sitting president whose actions have severely undermined respect for and trust in the very system that put him in office. Mr. Trump has shown only contempt for the democratic process and is a danger to our country. People who are in a position to remove Mr. Trump from office ought to proceed in haste as this president has repeatedly shown readiness to incite violence and mayhem, and also continues to demonstrate an obsession with the electoral results to the seeming exclusion of other national concerns. Our democratic system of government must be protected from his influence.As Ethical Humanists, we are called upon to repudiate the anti-democratic tendencies that have gained an unwelcome foothold in public life. Our country will need us to elicit the best from one another and ourselves in the months and years to come.#Jan6 #ethicalhumanism ow.ly/uxes50D2Gzn ... See MoreSee Less

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Share your voice! The AEU is seeking volunteers to contribute to our World Human Rights Day Project. Learn more here: ow.ly/YGDC50CYYPL ... See MoreSee Less

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The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist par The American Ethical Union calls for nontheist participation in National Inaugural Interfaith Service.

On Thursday January 21st, the Washington National Cathedral will host a virtual presidential inaugural interfaith service to mark the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. While presented as an opportunity to bring the whole nation together, and while part of the “America United” inaugural activities, one large community will not be represented at all: atheists, agnostics, humanists, and the nonreligious. 

Millions of Americans today make meaning and express their personal and civic values without reference to a god or traditional religious beliefs. These Americans deserve a voice, and should be included in formal interfaith programming like the Inaugural Service.
Today, as the nation continues to recover from an Today, as the nation continues to recover from an attempted white supremacist insurrection at our capitol, we are reflecting upon this quote from the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. 

#MLK #MLKDay #MLK2021 #King #MartinLutherKingJr #Today #EthicalCulture #Ethics #2021
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